About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
San Pancho. 7056 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park.
When Takoma Park Mexican restaurant Cielo Rojo moved into a larger location in the neighborhood earlier this year, owners Carolina McCandless and David Perez were left to come up with something else to put in its original 980-square-foot space. As they started thinking about what was lacking in the DC area, the answer was obvious to the former Californians: San Francisco-style burritos. Now, on Saturday, July 13, they’ll open San Pancho, with an all day menu that spans from egg-stuffed breakfast burritos with cold brew to barbacoa burritos with frozen margaritas.
What exactly is a San Francisco-style burrito? “It’s a little bit more of a spin on Mexican cuisine than just a Chipotle-style burrito,” McCandless says. For example, they use Mexican rice instead of white rice and pinto beans instead of black beans, plus lots of onions and cilantro. The burrito shop also hopes to standout with its fattier Sonoran-style tortillas from Mexico.
You can make your burrito “super” by adding guacamole and sour cream. “Everywhere you go, in all the burrito shops in San Francisco, you say, ‘Make it super,’ and everyone knows what you mean,” McCandless says.
Meat options include chicken mole, orange-and-beer-braised pork, barbacoa, and chile-pepper shrimp. McCandless and Perez met working at a vegan Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, so their menu will include vegan and vegetarian options too including a “chorizo” that they make in-house with mushrooms and tofu. Mornings, beginning at 8 AM, San Pancho will also serve “Mexican-style” breakfast burritos filled with scrambled eggs, fried breakfast potatoes, rajas (poblano peppers and caramelized onions), melted cheese, and refried pinto beans—with optional chorizo or guacamole.
Beyond burritos, you’ll find a caesar salad, quesadillas, and tortas, which were a weekly special at the original Cielo Rojo. To drink, there’s Vigilante Coffee cold brew, horchata, and agua frescas in the morning. Later in the day, find Mexican and local beers, a couple wines, and margarita slushies, including a summer version with strawberries and chia seeds.
The owners have made some small upgrades to the space, which has 20 seats inside and 20 outside. They’ve added loteria (Mexican bingo) tiles to the bar and created a maximalist look full of color with photographs of the Mission district in San Francisco on the walls.
As for the name? “San Pancho has kind of a play on words, because ‘pancho’ is a nickname for Francisco. So it’s like San Francisco,” McCandless says.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
